


Letting Go

by WolfSquish



Series: Pet Project [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief, Harry Potter Next Generation, Hospitalization, M/M, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, POV Male Character, POV Third Person, The Author Regrets Nothing, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:35:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23543983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfSquish/pseuds/WolfSquish
Summary: Theo's had an accident and this is his family dealing with letting go.
Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Pet Project [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663804
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Letting Go

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably one of the most if not the most painful thing I've ever written.  
> Massive thanks to ZakiSalem for reading this through! All remaining mistakes are mine.  
> It takes place on the 29th of December 2026

Scorpius swallowed thickly as he made eye contact with Robert. Barbara hadn’t looked at him since his outburst about needing to let Theo go, after Emery had come to say goodbye and gone again, taken home by an equally exhausted Molly. Scorpius hadn’t left the hospital since he got there and he wasn’t planning to until Theo had drawn his final breath. 

Robert gave a very small nod and turned to his wife, pulling her closer while Scorpius put his head back down on Theo’s chest. He slept curled up at his side, no matter how often the hospital staff moved him to a chair or bed or even the waiting room floor one time. He closed his eyes and focused on the sound of Theo’s breathing, on the beep of his heart rate monitor. He felt the bed dip and then there were arms half around him, Barbara’s arms. He opened his eyes for half a second to see her in a similar position to his on Theo’s other side, though he’d closed them again as a doctor walked over. 

Fifteen breaths later, the doctor’s shoes squeaked on the floor as they moved to the heart rate monitor, turning it off. The silence was deafening and the doctor’s voice was like static on the radio; meaningless and annoying but somehow so much better than the silence. Robert audibly suppressed a sob, making Scorpius jump; he hadn’t heard the older man move to stand behind him. 

“How long before he…?” Barbara’s voice wavered as she asked her question, making Scorpius’ chest crumple in on itself. They’d turned it off and given him the drugs then. 

“It could take a while. We’ll come to check up on him periodically.” The doctor said solemnly before the shoes squeaked again, slowly fading until all Scorpius could hear was Robert’s quiet sobs and Barbara’s soft crying and most importantly, Theo’s slow, even breaths and his heartbeat underneath. 

He could almost pretend that they were at home, asleep in the early hours of the morning before the chaos of the day. The doctor came and went a couple of times and nothing seemed to change, other than Barbara’s hold on his bicep growing tighter and tighter and eventually painful. Nothing hurt more than the growing hope in his chest that somehow, Theo would make it. That somehow, the ‘party’ would still happen and his life wouldn’t be knocked off its rails, his happiness intact and not torn to shreds at all. 

There was a hitch in Theo’s breathing and everyone else in the room held their breath before it continued on. Scorpius’ eyes burned but no tears would come. He’d broken down after Emery came and his body apparently hadn’t recovered enough to produce more tears already.

Robert let out a sound before leaving, the only evidence of that the door opening and closing and Barbara’s hold loosening before returning full force. She shook against her son and never to be son in law.

Neither mother nor fiancé had any comfort to offer each other as they clung to the man in the bed and each other. As they listened closely for any change in his breathing and heartbeat. As they held their breaths every single time there  _ was _ a change and tried to hold it together when they returned to normal.

Eventually, Barbara fell asleep, after she’d dug her nails into Scorpius’ arm to the point of it bleeding slightly. 

Scorpius couldn’t, wouldn’t, outright refused to waste whatever time he had left with Theo. He already knew he would never be able to listen to anyone’s heartbeat ever again. Wouldn’t be able to sleep resting his head on a comfortable chest and smile as he let slow, steady breathing lull him to sleep.

Never again. Not now and never after again. Scorpius was so focused on keeping himself awake that he thought he had missed the fact that Theo wasn’t breathing. His own breathing sped up, for a moment sinking into self-hatred, sure he’d been distracted and had missed his death before Theo breathed in slowly again. 

There was a rattle in his breathing now and Scorpius was sure it wouldn’t be much longer. He opened his eyes slowly, looking over to Barbara who was still asleep. He shifted, his hand on Theo’s chest to keep feeling his breathing as he kissed him gently, tears falling despite his earlier conviction that he’d cried out all his tears. 

“Please don’t go. Stay.” He whispered. He’d been fierce about letting Theo go the entire week they’d been there, but now that it came to it… He shook his head, swallowing thickly as he pressed his forehead against Theo’s cheek. “Don’t leave me.” His voice barely made a sound, broken in the silence of the hospital room as Theo’s breaths rattled in his chest.

Scorpius reached behind himself, moving Theo’s arm so his hand rested on his shoulder and he could hold his hand.

“I love you.” His mouth moved but no sound came out as Theo’s chest fell still. Scorpius stopped breathing too as he squeezed Theo’s fingers tightly, shaking his head in silent, rage-filled denial.

He seemed frozen in that bed while inside he hurled insults and pain at whoever was listening, cursing everyone and everything and himself most for the way things had gone.

He remained in that position until he was lifted off of Theo by orderlies after the doctor confirmed that Theo had died and they rolled him away to the morgue. His legs refused to carry him, and so he sat on the floor in the space where Theo’s bed had been, eyes unseeing as Barbara wrapped her arms around him, sobbing against him.

He sat when Robert came and gathered the pieces of his wife into his arms and took her home.

He sat until Molly forced him to his feet and took him home and then he sat and stared in their living room. 

He couldn’t tell you if it was night or day, rain or shine. He couldn’t tell up from down or anything beyond his overwhelming painful  _ missing _ . It ached. Hurt, burned, tore at him until the pieces were too small to ever even understand they were meant to be together. 


End file.
